Dermot Blain’s Interview on Full Tilt Poker Blog

The Global Poker Index keeps track of everything relevant happening in the world of poker and at the end of the year, awards the most successful players. Its Top 300 keeps poker professionals at the edge of their seat, but the player of the year trophy is every bit as respectable. Dermot Blain won the Irish Player of the Year award for two consecutive years and he was kind enough to give an ample interview to Full Tilt Poker (Part 1 and Part 2).

Dermot Blain also acts as a Full Tilt Poker Tour Ambassador. He finished the year with 170 points more than runner-up Pete Murphy to comfortably win the Irish Player of the Year award.

Dermot Blain – 430

Peter Murphy – 260

Marc MacDonnell – 236

John O’Shea – 235

Sean Prendiville – 227

When asked about his plans for 2014, Blain says that he intends to play just as many European Poker Tour tournaments as he did last year. He also has his sights locked on the United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour, with UKIPT Dublin and Marbella being at the top of his list. Dermot expects to play in EPT Prague and EPT Barcelona in the second half of the year and will definitely cross the Atlantic Ocean for the Full Tilt Poker’s Montreal Festival in October.

One of his most recent and also impressive performances is winning the EPT PLO tournament, which brought together 70 players. The only time when he really feared for his tournament life was in a hand played against a French opponent, but luckily for him the other player was drawing dead at the time he shoved his chips in the middle. While luck is definitely necessary for winning major tournaments, it is no coincidence that Dermot prevailed at the EPT.

He’s not the most active Pot-Limit Omaha player even though he spends most of the time competing online. Blain is an accomplished Texas Hold’em player but he spends only a fraction of time playing this game, focusing almost exclusively on PLO. At the end of the interview, he urged fellow poker players to give PLO side events a chance, if they have problems in dealing with the pressure of the main event.

As for himself, he looks forward to winning his third Global Poker Index Irish player of the year award and hopes that 2014 will also bring a win in a major tournament.

Read the full interview in Part 1 and Part 2 over at the Full Tilt Poker Blog.